Swimming team jets off to Africa Aquatics Championships

Local swimmers are set to make waves at the XVI Africa Aquatics and Open Water Swimming Championships to be held in Luanda, Angola, from April 30 to May 5. The 12 swimmers jetted off yesterday after a send off ceremony held at the University of Botswana on Saturday afternoon.

Speaking to SportMonitor, Matthew Gibson, who is a member of the Africa Aquatics Swimming technical committee, which would be assisting in running the event in Angola, said there would be two things happening at the championships. There are the pool swimming championships, which takes place first and on the final day of the competition there will be open water swimming championships.

“This is the Senior Africa Championships so it is senior open level. There are 36 countries registered currently and it is a big event, with the whole of Africa competing. Botswana is sending 12 swimmers to compete in the pool event as well as one open water specialist who would be taking part in the five kilometres open water competition. In terms of preparations, the team is where it is suppose to be, they are coming off the Botswana swimming national championships a few weeks ago. Our swimmers swam very well there,” he said.

Gibson further said the swimmers competition did not stop there as they went on to compete at the league event, which was the annual DMSS Gators gala, which was the last event of the year. He said the team has had a lot of racing and they have been in the pool since last season, and after the Africa Aquatics and Open Water Swimming Championships, the season ends and they should be able to compete at their best. He said the most important thing that the team could do is to make the final, followed by racing for a place and see what comes after that. He said Botswana is sending a big team, which would also compete in relays, a n d relays are always in the top three.

“The expectation is that some of swimmers make the finals but the competition will be very high. There are some swimmers coming from South Africa who did not make Olympics qualifying time at their recent senior nationals, they will be there to swim and there are some fantastic swimmers from Egypt. The times recorded in Angola will be considered as Olympic qualifiers,”

Gibson said.

Regarding Olympic qualification, Gibson stated that Botswana has swimmers that are close to B standard qualification, which means swimming is developing in the country, not just one or two swimmers but a handful of them.

Meanwhile, a board member of the Botswana Swimming Sport Association (BSSA), Kelebogile Molefe, urged the team to stay away from consuming things that they do not know in order to avoid doping.

Benco van Rooyen, who will be the only local swimmer competing in open water competition, told SportMonitor that he has been practicing in the form of a lot of distance for the open water under 1.5km. “I like swimming long distances and at the beginning of this year, I competed in the open water in Doha. Open water swimming is a discipline that requires a lot of confidence and I am looking forward to a good competition,” he said. The team: Tselane Matthews (girls captain), Kimberley Ingwe, Khalil Sethi, Takunda Gondo (boys captain), Amaru Ditlhogo, Kyra Harry, Rayhan Khonat, Yun-Suh Chan, Mmusi Matthews, Melodi Saleshando, Van Rooyen and Khumo Newman. Coach: Owen Caple. Team manager: Bianca Chanakira.